CH 102

The edited information was actually a blessing to Yan Suizhi, allowing him to avoid prying eyes from seeing the ins and outs of his genetic modifications.

As for who this person that had secretly lent him assistance could be… 

Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan exchanged a look, the answer on the forefront of their minds.

They had come down under the pretext of collecting evidence, originally with the intention to look for some useful leads to go on, but to their surprise, they ended up reaping a bountiful harvest far beyond what they had expected. More than that, it wasn’t bad news.

Ding.

The lobby door opened with a soft chime and a tall young lady dressed in formal attire walked in. She stood at the door, glancing around before directing her gaze over. 

Yan Suizhi elbowed Gu Yan and reminded, “Miss Li.”

Miss Li, who appeared in the camera lens of Director Yan’s script, received the cue and walked over to ask, “Lawyer Gu?”

Gu Yan nodded. “Miss Li Ying? Thank you for making the trip down.”

Li Ying smiled politely. “It’s no trouble. Our notary office is just a street away; I’m basically going out for a stroll.”

“What do you need to be notarised?” Li Ying also had a swift and decisive personality, cutting straight to the subject without wasting time on exchanging needless pleasantries.

Gu Yan pointed at the query kiosk. “Some medical records.”

“Okay.” Li Ying walked closer, projected the hologram of her work smart device, and began by snapping two photos.

The interstellar alliance had a standardised set of notarial procedures. Every step of the process was embedded in the notary office’s smart devices, with real-time intra-device monitoring to keep the percentage of falsified notarised documents as low as possible. 

There was no point in wasting manpower since they’d already called a notary over.

Besides, by experience, diagnosis and examination records were deemed important information. Gu Yan simply pulled out Horace Lee’s Request for Representation, which granted him the right to retrieve basic information like this without requiring his client’s consent.

As per the identity number printed on the Request for Representation, he entered it into the query kiosk.

All of Horace Lee’s medical records leapt out, spanning from the presumed start date of the Elderly Bobblehead case to the present. 

In less than three months, he had already accumulated 22 records.

Among which were 14 pertaining to the tests he took during this hospitalisation.

Li Ying had been recording the whole process on her smart device, but only after she saw Horace Lee’s name and photo jump onto the screen did she lightly utter a drawn-out “ah” of recognition.

She seemed slightly surprised. “Is your client involved in the Elderly Bobblehead case?” 

“Mn,” Gu Yan nodded and selected all of those 22 records.

“The articles were saying that it would be difficult for this man to find a defence lawyer,” Li Ying said.

Gu Yan had also seen these articles, which had come about all thanks to the dreadful express delivery. The lawyer in question, Dane, was fine, but various articles had added bells and whistles to the story, causing many lawyers to claim that they wouldn’t touch the case to avoid calling misfortune upon themselves.

“It was confirmed this morning.” 

Comprehension dawned on Li Ying. “No wonder.”

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“That’s true. If the public opinion is managed well, it could be useful in winning the case.”

Gu Yan didn’t appear to agree with this statement, but he didn’t seem to want to delve into it either. He collected the documents that were printed and arranged a set for Li Ying, kept a set for himself, maintaining just the appropriate amount of gentlemanly conduct. “If I may trouble you.”

Li Ying took the documents and swiftly walked through the rest of the notarial procedures as dictated by her smart device, signing her name at the end of them.

By the time she raised her head after she was done, Gu Yan was speaking to the young man in a white coat manning the query kiosk. So, she whispered to the gentle-looking Yan Suizhi, “Are you Lawyer Gu’s intern?” 

Yan Suizhi nodded and said with a smile, “Yes, hello.”

“Why did Lawyer Gu seem to have more to say just now?” Li Ying asked, almost conversationally.

You were even able to tell that he had more he wanted to say even with that paralysed facial expression of his? Yan Suizhi darted a look askance at Gu Yan’s back, and took advantage of the latter’s inattention to smile and say, “What he meant by it not being bad likely wasn’t referring to an opportunity to steer the direction of public opinion to gain an edge. Rather, he didn’t wish for the focus of people involved in or potentially involved in this case to gravitate around the mail harassment.”

It was possible that this negativity would unwittingly colour the choices and judgements of many people, including lawyers and judges. 

Li Ying was curious. “For real?”

At this time, Gu Yan had finished speaking to the young man and had turned back over. Yan Suizhi looked at him and smoothly said, smiling, “It’s all fake.”

Li Ying, “…”

“I’m kidding. It’s just a guess.” Yan Suizhi winked at Gu Yan, who was walking over. “But I feel that I should have some understanding of my own teacher, right, Teacher Gu?” 

Li Ying looked at Gu Yan.

Many people were like this—their curiosity would be sparked towards people who were or soon about to be the centre of public attention, and would also want to hear their genuine thoughts.

However, Gu Yan’s gaze never shifted away from Yan Suizhi. She couldn’t tell what they had communicated through their eyes, because his back was facing her, and she couldn’t see Gu Yan’s expression.

In spite of his lack of response, Yan Suizhi still ended up smiling. 

Sure enough, there was a natural affinity between teachers and their apprentices. It was easy to accidentally make others feel a bit redundant.

All of a sudden, Li Ying felt that her earlier question was slightly out of line. Fortunately, she had only asked the intern. She arched her pretty eyebrows, kept the documents, and said to the two of them, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be off first.”

Gu Yan turned his head and said to Li Ying, “Where are you going? We can drive you there.”

“I’m going back to the office. It’s just a few steps away; I don’t need a lift. You’ll be stepping on the brakes right after you get on the road, and it’s even easy to drive past it by accident.” Li Ying joked, “Next time if you require notary services at the hospital, you don’t even have to make a comms request; you can just shout over from the front door of the hospital. Our receptionist will be able to hear you.” 

With that, she didn’t continue to dally, waving and turning to leave.

Only, before she stepped out of the door, Li Ying looked back over again.

That lawyer had a hand stuck into his pocket, the other hand beckoning at the intern. Even though she was a distance away, and the expression on his face wasn’t very apparent, it was probably still unsmiling and indifferent. But, unlike before, it seemed almost teasing.

Li Ying suddenly felt it very novel that even the frostiest of people could display different facets when with those they were closer to. 

When they returned to the elevator, Yan Suizhi asked, “What did you talk to that guy about?”

“I asked him if the records could be directly modified from the query kiosks,” Gu Yan said.

“What did he reply?” 

“They can’t,” said Gu Yan, “and before the records are uploaded onto the cloud, only the supervising doctor of the department can touch these records.”

Strictly speaking, there were two doctors supervising Yan Suizhi’s test. The first was the curly-haired doctor, initially arranged to assist him, and the second was Lin Yuan.

Since the curly-haired doctor wasn’t around during those two days, only Lin Yuan remained.

When they returned upstairs, Lin Yuan was wearing a pair of protective goggles, as though he had just come back from the research lab. 

“So fast?”

“Mm. Notarisation doesn’t take too much time,” Gu Yan said.

“Great. I’ll calibrate the equipment and hurry with the test then,” Lin Yuan took off his goggles.

After having affirmed that he didn’t harbour any malicious intent, they were very cooperative with the testing. 

This test was different from the previous test for genetic modification surgery. It didn’t require him to strip. He only had to prick the metal needle, with its tubing, into the area of his neck. It didn’t hinder conversation.

Throughout this, Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan tried sounding him out a few times, but Lin Yuan seemed completely oblivious to this probing.

Or perhaps he had noticed it but chose to skirt the subject.

The results of this test finally came after approximately ten minutes. 

Lin Yuan shot a look at the machine’s screen and said, “…It’s negative.”

Yan Suizhi asked, “Why did you hesitate?”

Lin Yuan flipped through the pages on the screen, his gaze focused on the screen. His brows were furrowed and he seemed to be deep in thought.

Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan walked over and stood next to him, reading the screen, but all they ended up seeing was divine scripture. 

“Is there an issue?” Yan Suizhi asked.

Whilst mulling it over, Lin Yuan diverted a little of his attention to reply, somewhat absently, “Did you do some other genetic modification surgery long ago? How should I put this, I glimpsed some rather interesting gene fragments. It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly what the situation is, but I can tell you that they will affect you and easily cause interference when you take similar tests.”

“I see,” Yan Suizhi’s gaze flickered. Following the flow of the conversation, he said, “But I haven’t noticed any abnormalities these years. If there’s anything, it’s probably only that I don’t have a good appetite.”

From the byline, Gu Yan added, “Does being prone to feeling cold count?” 

Lin Yuan, “Hm…”

Lin Yuan, “…Hm???”

He was drawn out from his thoughts, blinking owlishly, “Who are you saying gets cold easily?”

“Me,” Yan Suizhi said. “I’m a little afraid of the cold, but there’s nothing much else.” 

Lin Yuan went “oh” and waved, saying, “They won’t affect him in that way. Actually, they aren’t quite harmful either; they don’t appear to cause any health complications in the present. I need further testing to have a better idea. Are you free afterwards? This might take quite some time; you’ll have to be examined in a research lab.”

“How long will it take, roughly?”

“Half a day,” Lin Yuan said. “I have to prepare the equipment in the research lab. Next week, probably; will you be able to free half a day for this?”

Yan Suizhi, “Sure.” 

Lin Yuan glanced at Gu Yan, asking Yan Suizhi, as if in reminder, “Don’t you have to ask your teacher for permission?”

Gu Yan straightforwardly said, “I don’t have any objections.”

“Huh,” Lin Yuan said and nodded. “Alright then. I’ll fill the paperwork for you. Just let me know when you want to schedule it.”

“Why don’t you give me your comms number?” Yan Suizhi said. “So that I won’t end up coming down to your office when you aren’t around.” 

“I should be around all of next week,” Lin Yuan said, but still gave him a contact number. “013-09888712.”

“Thank you, I’ve saved it.”

“You can approach me if you have any queries about your health. But it’d be better to do it through text; I won’t be able to pick up calls when in the operation room.”

The two of them said a few more words to Lin Yuan then made to leave the office. 

Out of courtesy, Lin Yuan sent them to the office door.

The door was half-open. Where they stood fell perfectly into the blindspot of the surveillance cameras in the office and the corridor.

At this time, Yan Suizhi paused in his step. He lifted his eyes to look at Lin Yuan, smiling gently, revealing a maturity that wasn’t congruent with his outer appearance. “Oh, right. I have a question that I’d like your opinion on, Dr Lin.”

Lin Yuan gave a start. “What is it?” 

“If I’m not mistaken, you said something just now,” Yan Suizhi leisurely said.

“What did I say?”

“You asked me, ‘Did you do some other genetic modification surgery long ago?'” Yan Suizhi said. “So, I’m thinking. Normally, under what circumstances would someone unconsciously use the word ‘other’?”

Lin Yuan, “…” 

He suddenly understood a universal truth of life—even at the cost of death, don’t butt heads with lawyers on details.